OrbitStudio ← Back to site

Terms of Service

Last updated: 29 October 2026 · Agreement version 2026-10-29c

These terms apply whenever you use OrbitStudio — the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys and Jupiter generator, OrbitStudio Sky, our star-chart tool, and OrbitStudio Atlas, our relief maps of countries — with or without an account. If you buy a Plus or Merchant plan, sections 5A (plans) and 7 (withdrawal) apply to it; if you buy one model or one star chart's 3MF on its own, sections 5B (one model) and 7 do. Please read sections 8 (what you may do with your models), 11 (source data), 12 (printing), 13 (safety) and 15 (liability) carefully — they set out what OrbitStudio does and does not promise, and what you are responsible for once you print or share something.

01 Who we are

OrbitStudio is operated by SimplySolid3D, a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) registered in the Netherlands.

In these terms, "we", "us" and "OrbitStudio" mean the above. "You" means the person using the service.

02 These terms

By creating an account, redeeming a validation code, or otherwise using OrbitStudio, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

We may change these terms — for example when features change or the law changes. If a change is material, we will notify you by email or in the app before it takes effect. Changes do not apply retroactively to orders already placed. If you do not accept a material change, you may stop using the service and close your account.

03 What OrbitStudio does

OrbitStudio has three tools. The generator lets you select a region of the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter and generate 3D-printable models — jigsaw puzzles and solid ornaments — derived from publicly available NASA elevation data (for Jupiter, which has no solid surface, a flat model in the colours of a Hubble map). OrbitStudio Sky turns a place, a date and a time into a 3D-printable star chart: a plate showing the sky above that place at that moment, with optional constellation figures, planets, raised text and a desk stand. OrbitStudio Sky builds each chart in your own browser. OrbitStudio Atlas builds 3D-printable relief maps of a country, or of one of its provinces: relief puzzles whose pieces are cut along the real borders, and solid reliefs. They are derived from public elevation and boundary data, which comes with conditions of its own (section 8).

Models can be downloaded as STL files and as 3MF files. Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys and Jupiter models and star charts come with pre-configured 3MF project files; an OrbitStudio Atlas model comes as one download of STL files and plain 3MF files, one for each print plate, which carry no slicer settings. Section 5 sets out which downloads are free and which use a credit.

OrbitStudio is a software tool. We do not print, manufacture, or ship physical objects, and we do not supply printers, filament or other materials.

04 Accounts and validation codes

  • OrbitStudio Sky needs no account: anyone may make a star chart and download its STL file. You need an account to download a Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter model, to download a star chart's 3MF files, and to keep models in a library. Generating a Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter model needs an account too, except where the app offers you a trial generation without one. OrbitStudio Atlas shows a preview without an account; building and downloading an Atlas model need one.
  • Credits come from redeeming a validation code, for example a code issued through a MakerWorld campaign.
  • A Plus or Merchant plan (section 5A) can be bought on any account with a verified email address. You cannot buy a plan without an account.
  • Provide accurate information and keep your password confidential. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account.
  • One account per person. Validation codes are single-use, personal, and may not be sold, shared or published.
  • Tell us promptly at the contact address above if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.
  • You must be at least 16 years old, or have permission from a parent or guardian.

05 Credits, Passes and payment

  • Paid downloads are granted through credits or a Pass: every Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter model, every OrbitStudio Atlas model, and the 3MF files of an OrbitStudio Sky star chart. A star chart's STL file is free and needs neither an account nor a credit. Which tier you receive, and how many credits it carries, is set by the validation code you redeem — the reward tier you backed on MakerWorld — or by the plan you bought under section 5A. You can also buy one model, or one star chart's 3MF files, on its own, without a plan (section 5B).
  • Passes are sold through our crowdfunding campaign on MakerWorld (operated by Bambu Lab). You pay MakerWorld, under MakerWorld's own terms; we never receive or store your payment details. After the campaign, MakerWorld sends you a validation code, and redeeming that code on your OrbitStudio account is what grants the pass. See section 7 for withdrawal and refunds. Plans are sold on OrbitStudio itself (section 5A). A plan is not a Pass and is not redeemed with a code.
  • A further code. Redeeming another validation code on an account that already has a Pass adds that code's credits to the ones you hold, and keeps whichever of the two Passes is larger. A Lifetime Creator or Lifetime Commercial account already has unlimited downloads, so another code is refused, and stays unused, unless it is the larger Lifetime Commercial Pass.
  • Yearly allowance. A Starter Pass comes with 6 credits a year and a Premium Pass with 20. Once a year, on the date shown on your account, your balance is set back to that number. Credits you have not used by then, including credits added by a further code, do not carry over.
  • Credits have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, and are not transferable between accounts.
  • A credit is spent when you unlock the paid deliverables for a generated model. Generating a preview does not spend a credit. On OrbitStudio Sky, one credit unlocks one chart's 3MF files — the chart and its desk stand — and downloading that same chart again does not spend another. A chart stays the same chart while its place, date, time, time zone, sky window and text (every line, shown or hidden) stay the same; changing any of them, even to fix a typo, makes a new chart. A chart of a single constellation has no place, date or time of its own: it stays the same chart while its constellation and its text stay the same. Changing only how it prints, such as its size, shape, font, layers, star height or desk stand, keeps it the same chart.
  • On OrbitStudio Atlas, one credit unlocks one model's files — the preview is free, and downloading that same model again does not spend another. Atlas models count towards the fair-use limits and your library like any other model, and building them has a limit of its own on top (below).
  • Generating models is subject to the fair-use limits below. Credits and Passes do not override these limits.
  • A free account — one created without a validation code — can generate, cut and save models up to its library limit, but it holds no credits, so it cannot download a Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter model, an OrbitStudio Atlas model or a star chart's 3MF files, unless it buys that one model on its own (section 5B). Like everyone, it can download a star chart's STL. Redeeming a validation code on that same account adds credits, which unlock downloads for the models already saved on it. A free account's models that were never downloaded are removed after a year of inactivity, like any other model; a star chart saved to its library is kept until you delete it (section 6).

Fair-use limits, per account:

  • While your account has credits to spend: 100 generations per rolling 24 hours and 5,000 per rolling 365 days. An account with a running Plus or Merchant plan counts as having credits to spend, so these limits apply to it.
  • On a free account, and on any account whose credits have run out: 15 generations per rolling 24 hours and 300 per rolling 365 days. Generating is free, so for an account with nothing left to spend these limits are the only thing bounding what it can cost us to run.
  • On OrbitStudio Atlas, on top of those: 20 builds per rolling 24 hours, counting every build you start, also one that fails, and one build at a time, because every build takes minutes of our servers' time.

These windows are rolling rather than calendar-based: capacity frees up gradually as older generations pass out of the window, instead of resetting at midnight or on 1 January. The limits count the models added to your account — every Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter generation, every OrbitStudio Atlas model you build, and every star chart saved to your library — so regenerating the same region counts each time, while downloading a model you already have does not. A star chart you make without saving it is built in your browser and counts toward nothing, and neither does an Atlas preview.

The limits are set far above normal use. They exist to keep the service fast for everyone and to stop automated scraping — not to restrict makers. If you have a genuine need for a higher limit, email us and we will normally raise it. We may adjust these limits and will update this page when we do.

05A Plans

Plans on offer

Besides a Pass from the crowdfunding campaign, you can buy a plan on your OrbitStudio account, on the My plans page. There are four:

  • Plus per month and Merchant per month renew automatically every month until you cancel.
  • Plus per year and Merchant per year renew automatically every year until you cancel. About 30 days before each yearly renewal we send one reminder email to the address on your account, with the renewal date and the amount. Cancel before the renewal date and the plan runs to the end of the year you paid for. After a renewal you can cancel at any time with one month's notice, and we refund the unused part of the year (see "Cancelling" below).

The price of a plan is the price shown at checkout, in the currency shown there. A renewing plan is charged that same price on each renewal date. If we change the price of a plan, the new price applies to new purchases only: a plan you already have keeps its price for as long as it keeps renewing, until it ends.

What a plan gives you

A plan adds rights to your account for as long as it runs. It does not replace anything you already hold.

  • Plus gives you unlimited downloads of the models you generate, for personal use, and a library of up to 25 models. While it runs it gives the same rights as the Lifetime Creator Pass in section 8, and no credit is spent on a download.
  • Merchant gives you everything in Plus and, in addition, the right to sell physical prints of your models and to use photos and video of them commercially, as section 8 sets out for the commercial tier; a license number and certificate (section 8); and a library of up to 50 models. While it runs it gives the same rights as the Lifetime Commercial Pass in section 8.
  • Your account shows the plan by its own name, Plus or Merchant. A plan is not a Lifetime Pass: it ends when its period ends, as set out below.
  • If you hold more than one, the higher applies. A Merchant plan already includes Plus, so we do not sell you Plus while a Merchant plan runs, and we do not sell you a plan you already have. If you hold Plus and buy Merchant, both run and both keep renewing until you cancel them; cancel Plus yourself if you no longer want it. We do not refund the unused part of Plus when you add Merchant.
  • Unlimited is about credits, not about our servers. The fair-use limits in section 5 still apply to a plan, as for any account that has credits to spend.

A plan sits on top of a Pass

If you also hold a Pass from the campaign (Starter, Premium, Lifetime Creator or Lifetime Commercial), a plan does not change it. Your Pass, and the credits that come with it, stay on your account exactly as they were, and your yearly credit refill carries on as before. While the plan runs you do not spend credits on downloads. When it ends, your account goes back to its Pass and the credits you had, and you can use them again. A free account goes back to being a free account.

Payment, and who sells to you

Plans are sold to you by Stripe, acting as merchant of record (reseller), through Stripe's Managed Payments service. Stripe charges you, handles sales tax and VAT, issues your receipt and handles payment questions and disputes; its own terms apply to the payment (stripe.com/legal). OrbitStudio (SimplySolid3D) provides the service, and these terms apply to your use of it. The Stripe company that sells to you is named on your receipt. Stripe runs these sales through its Link service, so your checkout and receipt say "Sold through Link" and your card statement may show LINK.COM rather than "OrbitStudio"; Link's support pages explain what that means. We never receive or store your card details. Passes bought through MakerWorld stay between you and MakerWorld, as section 5 says.

We give Stripe your email address and account number to set up the checkout and to match the payment to your account. See the Privacy Policy.

Buying a plan: your request that access starts now

You can only buy a plan when you are signed in with a verified email address. Before the checkout buttons work you must tick the box that says:

I want access to start now and understand I lose my right of withdrawal once I have used it.

Ticking it is your express request that access starts immediately, and your agreement to these terms for the plan. The version of these terms you agreed to is recorded with the purchase. Once the payment has gone through we email you a confirmation of the purchase that repeats that sentence, the moment you gave it and the version of these terms that applied. Section 7 says what this means for withdrawing.

Cancelling

You can cancel a renewing plan at any time on the My plans page, with the Cancel subscription button. You do not need to sign in anywhere else and you do not have to contact us. Cancelling stops the next renewal. The plan keeps working until the end of the period you have paid for; we do not shorten it. Apart from the right of withdrawal in section 7 and the yearly rule below, we do not refund part of a period that has started.

A yearly plan after an automatic renewal. Once a yearly plan (Plus per year or Merchant per year) has renewed, you can cancel at any time with one month's notice. Press Cancel subscription: the plan then ends 30 days later, or at the end of the year if that comes first. If it ends before the end of the year, we refund the part of the year after that date, in proportion to the time left, to the way you paid. Your plan and all its rights keep working until the day it ends. The page shows the end date and the refund when you cancel, and the refund is paid out by Stripe. In the first year, before any renewal, there is no notice period and no refund: the plan runs to the end of the year you paid for (apart from the right of withdrawal in section 7).

If a payment fails

If a renewal payment fails, your plan is marked past due and keeps working for 3 days after the end of the period you last paid for, while Stripe tries the payment again. If the payment goes through, the plan carries on without a gap. If it does not, access ends when those 3 days are over. We do not extend a period until a payment has arrived for it. If you cancel a plan while its payment has failed, it stops at once rather than at the end of a period, so that Stripe stops trying to charge you; nothing is charged for the unpaid period.

When a plan ends

When a plan ends, for any reason (you cancelled, a payment failed, you withdrew, or we ended it under section 16):

  • your account goes back to its Pass and credits, or to a free account, as above;
  • the models and files you already downloaded stay yours, under the licence in section 8 for the tier you held when you made them;
  • selling prints needs a Merchant plan that is running. From the day the plan ends you may no longer sell physical prints made with OrbitStudio under it, and that includes stock you printed while the plan ran: take those listings off sale that day. Prints you had already sold before then stay covered, so nothing you sold becomes unlicensed in your buyer's hands;
  • the license number from your Merchant certificate no longer checks as valid on the public check page from that moment. If you buy Merchant again, the same number works again;
  • your library limit goes back to that of your Pass or free account. We do not delete saved models because a plan ended, but you cannot add new ones until you are under the smaller limit. Models you never downloaded are still removed after a year of inactivity, as section 6 says.

Closing your account

You cannot delete your account while a plan is still set to renew, because the payments would go on: the page asks you to cancel your subscription first. Once you have cancelled, so that no plan renews any more, you can delete your account at any time; section 16 applies.

Changes to plans

We can stop selling a plan, change what a plan includes, or change its price for new purchases. A plan you already have keeps its price, and is not reduced during a period you have paid for. You can cancel a plan at any time, as "Cancelling" above sets out.

05B One model, bought on its own

If you have no credits to spend and no plan, you can buy the model on your screen on its own, from the download window, without a plan or a Pass. On OrbitStudio Sky you can buy one star chart's 3MF files the same way, from the window that asks for a plan when you press a 3MF button. Everything below applies to both, except where it names one.

  • What it covers. One Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys or Jupiter model: that model's STL and 3MF files, which you can download again from your library at any time. It does not cover other models, OrbitStudio Atlas models or a star chart's 3MF files, and it gives your account no credits and no plan.
  • What a star chart covers. One star chart's 3MF files: the chart and its desk stand, in the sense section 5 gives "the same chart". Make that same chart again in OrbitStudio Sky, signed in to the same account, and its 3MF files download again without paying. A star chart's STL is free anyway. It does not cover other charts, and it gives your account no credits and no plan.
  • Personal use. A model bought this way is for personal, non-commercial use, as section 8 sets out for every tier but the commercial one. Selling prints of it needs a Merchant plan that is running or a Lifetime Commercial Pass.
  • Who can buy. You need to be signed in with a verified email address. We do not sell you a model your account can already download, because it holds credits or a plan, or because the model is already unlocked. If you pay for one anyway, for example because a plan started while you were paying, we refund the payment.
  • Price. The price is the one shown at checkout, in the currency shown there. It is a single payment: nothing renews.
  • Who sells to you. As with plans (section 5A), the model is sold to you by Stripe, acting as merchant of record through its Managed Payments service, and Stripe issues your receipt. We give Stripe your email address, your account number and which model you are buying.
  • Access starts now. Before you can pay you must tick the same box as for a plan: I want access to start now and understand I lose my right of withdrawal once I have used it. The version of these terms you agreed to is recorded with the purchase. Once the payment has gone through, the model is unlocked on your account and the download window opens (for a star chart, the chart comes back on your screen and its 3MF downloads), and we email you a confirmation that repeats that sentence, the moment you gave it and the version of these terms that applied. Section 7 says what this means for withdrawing.
  • Your library. The model takes one place in your library, like any other (section 6). Because it is unlocked, we keep its files for as long as your account exists. A star chart bought this way takes no place in your library: the 3MF files are built in your browser, and what we keep is the record that this chart is yours. Saving the chart to your library is a separate step (section 6).

06 "Lifetime" Passes and discontinuation

"Lifetime" means the operational lifetime of the OrbitStudio service — not the lifetime of the purchaser. A Lifetime Pass gives you access for as long as we operate OrbitStudio.

OrbitStudio is run by an independent maker. We intend to keep it running, but we cannot guarantee that it will operate indefinitely. If we decide to discontinue the service, we will give you at least three (3) months' notice by email to the address on your account, so that you have time to generate and download whatever you still want while the service is running.

Your library holds a number of models that depends on your tier. We keep the files for that many of your most recent models, so you can open and re-download them from the app for as long as your account exists. Re-downloading a model you have already unlocked never costs another credit.

  • Free account — 3 models
  • Starter Pass — 6 models
  • Premium Pass — 12 models
  • Lifetime Creator, or a Plus plan while it runs — 25 models
  • Lifetime Commercial, or a Merchant plan while it runs — 50 models

A terrain and the puzzle or ornament cut from it count as one model, not two, and a star chart saved from OrbitStudio Sky or a map built with OrbitStudio Atlas is one model too. Cutting a puzzle or an ornament from a terrain replaces that terrain: the new model takes its place in your library and the terrain's files are removed. This never applies to a model you have already downloaded — those are yours and are never replaced.

We do not delete anything to make room. When the library is full, generating a new model is blocked until you remove one yourself — you are the only one who knows which of your models still matters, and the app shows you which ones you have downloaded so you can choose. Moving to a higher tier raises the limit; it never removes anything you already have.

Models you have not downloaded are kept for one year. If you have downloaded a model, we keep its files for as long as your account exists. If you have not, we keep them for 12 months, and that year starts again every time you open the model, download it, or press Keep on its card.

A star chart you save to your library from OrbitStudio Sky is the exception: it is kept for as long as your account exists from the moment you save it, whether or not you have downloaded it.

Every model shows how long it has left, and models close to their date are highlighted. When a model's year runs out we remove its files and the slot becomes free again; nothing you have paid a credit for, or bought on its own, is ever removed this way. This keeps storage for accounts that are still in use.

Still keep your own copies. The library is a convenience, not a backup service. We do not guarantee that a stored model remains retrievable, and access to it ends when the service ends. Anything you want to keep for good, download and store somewhere of your own.

We may also change, add or remove individual features over time. This is normal product development and does not by itself entitle you to a refund, provided the core function — generating printable lunar terrain models — remains available.

07 Right of withdrawal and refunds

This section has three parts: Passes and validation codes first, then plans, then a model or a star chart bought on its own.

Passes and validation codes

Two contracts are involved, and it matters which one you want to undo. Your payment is a contract with MakerWorld: refunds of a pledge, and any right of withdrawal on that purchase, are handled by MakerWorld under its own terms and policies. Your OrbitStudio account is a contract with us for access to digital content, which begins the moment you redeem a validation code.

If you are a consumer in the EU you normally have 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract. Redeeming a validation code gives you access to the paid content at once, so by redeeming a code you expressly request that access begin immediately and you acknowledge that you thereby lose your right of withdrawal on that access. If you redeem your code while creating your account, accepting these terms at that moment is that request. This is permitted under article 6:230p(d) of the Dutch Civil Code. A free account pays nothing, and the only download open to it — a star chart's STL — is free to everyone, so it waives nothing: we record the request at the moment a code is redeemed.

  • Accepting these terms is a separate, unticked confirmation. An account cannot be created without it, and we record the date and the version of these terms you agreed to. We record separately the moment you asked for access to begin, which is the moment a validation code is redeemed on your account.
  • Once a validation code has been redeemed and access has begun, the right of withdrawal no longer applies to that access.
  • Credits and Passes are not refundable by us once a validation code has been redeemed, and credits have no cash value. Before you redeem a code, any refund request goes to MakerWorld. This is about Passes and credits; plans have their own rules below.

Plans

If you are a consumer in the EU you have 14 days from the day you bought a plan to withdraw from the purchase. A plan gives you access at once, because you asked for that when you ticked the box at checkout (section 5A):

I want access to start now and understand I lose my right of withdrawal once I have used it.

By ticking it you expressly request that access begin immediately and you acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal once you have used the plan. After the purchase we email you a confirmation of the purchase and of this consent. This is permitted under article 6:230p(d) of the Dutch Civil Code.

  • If you have not used the plan, you can withdraw within 14 days of buying it and we refund the full price. Use the Withdraw button on the My plans page. The refund goes back the way you paid, through Stripe, and the plan ends straight away.
  • "Used" means that, since the plan started, you have unlocked a model of any world for download, bought a star chart's 3MF files, or, with a Merchant plan, had a license number issued to you (which happens the first time you open your license certificate; opening a number you already had before the plan is not use). Generating, previewing and saving models are not use, and neither is downloading a star chart's STL. Once you have used the plan, the Withdraw button no longer shows.
  • Once you have used the plan, the right of withdrawal ends, as you agreed at checkout.
  • After 14 days you can still cancel (section 5A), and the plan runs to the end of the period you paid for.
  • A withdrawal refunds the payment for the period you bought and ends the plan. It does not change your Pass or your credits.
  • If Stripe refunds you. Stripe may also refund you under its own terms; such a refund does not by itself end the plan — cancel it if you want it to stop.

One model or star chart bought on its own

  • If you are a consumer in the EU you have 14 days from the day you bought a model (section 5B) to withdraw from the purchase, as long as you have not downloaded it. Downloading the model is using it: by ticking the box at checkout you asked for access to start at once and acknowledged that you lose your right of withdrawal once you have used it, which is permitted under article 6:230p(d) of the Dutch Civil Code.
  • To withdraw, reply to the confirmation email or write to the contact address in section 1. We refund the full price the way you paid, through Stripe.
  • Opening the download window is not a download; pressing one of its download buttons is.
  • A star chart's 3MF downloads by itself as soon as the payment has gone through, because you asked for it when you pressed the 3MF button. That download is using it, so the right of withdrawal ends then. If the download did not start and you have not downloaded the 3MF since, the 14 days above apply.

None of this affects your statutory rights if something we supply is faulty, or the mandatory consumer rights preserved in section 15.

08 What you may do with your models

Subject to these terms, we grant you a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual licence to use the models you generate — Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys and Jupiter models, star charts made with OrbitStudio Sky, and relief maps built with OrbitStudio Atlas. What you may do commercially depends on your tier.

Where these rights come from. We can only pass on rights we have, so what a model is built from decides what this licence can cover, and the three tools are built from different things.

Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys. The elevation data every Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys model is built from is in the public domain — NASA's LOLA for the Moon and MOLA for Mars, and for Mercury the global elevation model the USGS made from NASA's MESSENGER images (with that model's own polar editions at the poles), all published by the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, which asks that its sources be credited but places no condition on reuse and none on resale. Closer to Mercury's north pole the models use NASA Goddard's polar topography from MESSENGER's laser altimeter (E. Mazarico, NASA GSFC Planetary Geodesy Data Archive, 2022), which is NASA mission data and carries no condition either. For Venus, the models are built from NASA Magellan's radar altimetry — the Global Topographic Data Record of P. G. Ford and G. H. Pettengill (MIT), in the edition the USGS Astrogeology Science Center publishes — which that edition's own record places in the public domain. About 3% of Venus was never measured, including everything within about four degrees of either pole; we fill those gaps by smooth interpolation, so they print as smooth ground. For Pluto, the models are built from the global topographic map of NASA's New Horizons mission (New Horizons team: NASA, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Southwest Research Institute and the Lunar and Planetary Institute; Schenk et al. 2018), archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (doi:10.26007/qc8b-6p65) and published by the USGS Astrogeology Science Center. NASA licenses data from its missions under Creative Commons Zero unless a file says otherwise, and these files carry no such notice. New Horizons measured about 45% of Pluto; models can only be made of that part. For Charon, the models are built from the same mission's global topographic map of Charon (New Horizons team; Schenk et al. 2018), as archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (doi:10.26007/qc8b-6p65), under the same terms. New Horizons measured about 44% of Charon; models can only be made of that part. For Ceres, the models are built from the shape model of NASA's Dawn mission made by the Dawn Gravity Science Team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Park et al. 2019, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.10.024), as archived in NASA's Planetary Data System by JPL's Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility. JPL's policy for what it supplies to that archive lets anyone use it for any purpose without prior permission, on the condition that no one claims or implies that NASA, JPL or Caltech endorses a product; that condition applies to you as it does to us, so do not present your prints as endorsed by any of them. NASA licenses data from its missions under Creative Commons Zero unless a file says otherwise, and these files carry no such notice. Around Ceres's south pole Dawn never saw the ground in sunlight and the shape there is not a measurement; models cannot be made of that area. For Vesta, the models are built from the shape model of the same mission made by the same team (Park et al. 2025, doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02533-7), archived the same way, whose record in NASA's Planetary Data System (doi:10.17189/1520119) states the Creative Commons Zero licence; JPL's policy and its one condition apply to it as they do to Ceres, so do not present your prints as endorsed by NASA, JPL or Caltech. Where Dawn saw Vesta's far north only in the long northern winter, the same team's coarser global model fills the shape; models can be made there and print softer. For Mimas, a moon of Saturn, the models are built from the shape model J. R. Weirich, R. W. Gaskell, E. E. Palmer and D. L. Domingue of the Planetary Science Institute made from NASA's Cassini images (Mimas SPC Shape Model and Assessment Products V1.0, 2025), archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (doi:10.26033/y8wv-r303), whose record states the Creative Commons Zero licence. For Enceladus, another moon of Saturn, the models are built from version 2 of the shape model made at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from Cassini's images (R. S. Park et al., doi:10.1029/2023JE008054), archived in NASA's Planetary Data System by JPL's Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility, whose record (doi:10.17189/1520114) states the Creative Commons Zero licence; JPL's policy and its one condition apply to it as they do to Ceres, so do not present your prints as endorsed by NASA, JPL or Caltech. For Tethys, a third moon of Saturn, the models are built from the shape model the same Planetary Science Institute team made from NASA's Cassini images (Tethys SPC Shape Model and Assessment Products V1.0, 2025), archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (doi:10.26033/hpv0-eh61), whose record states the Creative Commons Zero licence. For all three moons we give heights above a reference ellipsoid, our own processing of those models. That is why the licence above is ours to give for those models. If a world we add later is only available under data terms of its own, those terms will be set out here before that world is, and they will govern models of it: a right we cannot pass on is not one you should be relying on.

Surface colours. A model whose terrain you print in more than one colour takes those colours from images of that world, so its rights come from those images as well. For the Moon, they are the shades of grey of the black-and-white global mosaic of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera, the one the map shows, as archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (LRO LROC RDR, doi:10.17189/1520341), whose record places it in the public domain; we use the copy in that archive, not images from the camera team's website or the map's own tiles, and credit it, as the camera team asks, to “NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University”. For Mercury, they are the shades of grey of the black-and-white global basemap of NASA's MESSENGER mission, the one the map shows (MDIS Low-Incidence Basemap RDR, as archived in NASA's Planetary Data System, doi:10.17189/1520239), a work of the U.S. Government that the archive's record also licenses under Creative Commons Zero. For Mars, they are the colorized Viking global mosaic (MDIM 2.1) made by the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and NASA's Ames Research Center from NASA's Viking Orbiter images, which the USGS places in the public domain. For Pluto, they are the global color map of NASA's New Horizons mission (Stern et al. 2025, doi:10.26007/mc7j-ef52) in the enhanced colour the map shows (its near-infrared, red and blue images), whose record in NASA's Planetary Data System states the Creative Commons Zero licence. For Charon, they are the shades of grey of the same mission's black-and-white global mosaic of Charon, the one the map shows (NASA's Planetary Data System, doi:10.26007/qc8b-6p65), whose record states the same licence. For Vesta, they are the true-colour mosaics the German Aerospace Center (DLR) made from the camera images of NASA's Dawn mission and archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (Roatsch et al. 2015, DAWN-A-FC2-5-MOSAIC-V1.0), the ones the map shows, which DLR makes available under Creative Commons Zero through that archive. DLR asks to be credited as “Vesta true-color mosaic: DLR / Dawn mission (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)”; we credit it so here, and ask you to do the same when you share a Vesta model printed in more than one colour, though the licence does not require it. Where those mosaics have small gaps, up to about 10 km across, a Vesta model takes the colour of the ground around each gap there. For Venus, they are the simulated colours the map shows: the radar images of NASA's Magellan mission (the USGS Astrogeology Science Center's global left-look mosaic at 75 m and its C3-MDIR mosaic at 2 km) drawn through the colour scale of the USGS's simulated-colour mosaic of Venus, and, where neither radar mosaic has an image, that simulated-colour mosaic itself, which the USGS interpolated across those gaps from the images around them; all three the USGS places in the public domain. For Enceladus, they are the shades of grey of the black-and-white global map of Enceladus that NASA's Cassini imaging team (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) made with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from Cassini's images, the one the map opens in, as archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (volume COISS_3002, CO-S-ISSNA/ISSWA-5-MIDR-V1.0); it is NASA mission data that carries no restrictive notice, so NASA's Creative Commons Zero licence applies, and the USGS's own edition of it is in the public domain. Enceladus's map can also show Paul Schenk's (Lunar and Planetary Institute) enhanced-colour maps of 2014; those are shown on screen only and never printed. None of these carries a condition on reuse or resale, so the licence above covers the colours as it does the terrain, and attribution is otherwise appreciated but not required. Ceres, Mimas and Tethys models are printed in one colour of your choice: no colour images of Ceres's surface are available on these terms, and the images of Mimas and Tethys do not line up closely enough with their shape models to colour them.

Jupiter. Jupiter has no solid surface, so Jupiter models are flat: no elevation data goes into them, and their colours are the whole of what they show. Those colours come from one source that is not in the public domain: the global map of Jupiter of 11 December 2025 made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program (NASA, ESA, A. A. Simon (NASA GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley)), archived at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (doi:10.17909/T9G593) and released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). We resampled it to planetocentric latitude and reduce it to the filaments you choose. CC BY 4.0 lets anyone use, adapt and sell it, commercially too, on one condition: credit. If you share a Jupiter model or print — selling it, displaying it in public and publishing photos or files of it are all sharing — give this credit where the people you share with will see it: Jupiter map and colours: NASA, ESA, A. A. Simon (NASA GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Hubble Space Telescope OPAL program, image of 11 December 2025, doi:10.17909/T9G593, licensed CC BY 4.0, modified. The model's files carry this credit too. This condition comes from that licence, not from us, and we cannot waive it. Do not present your prints as endorsed by NASA, ESA or the Space Telescope Science Institute. Nothing in these terms limits what CC BY 4.0 itself lets you do with that map; the conditions in this section apply to the model we generate, not to the map.

Mercury's south pole. Within 15 degrees of Mercury's south pole (south of 75°S) Mercury models are also built from one source that is not in the public domain: the south polar topography of S. Bertone, E. Mazarico, M. K. Barker, M. A. Siegler, J. M. Martinez Camacho, C. D. Hamill, A. K. Glatzenberg and N. L. Chabot, “Highly resolved topography and illumination at Mercury south pole from MESSENGER MDIS-NAC” (version 1.1.0, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.19740142), released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). We resampled it to our model grid and blended it with the USGS polar elevation model. CC BY 4.0 lets anyone use, adapt and sell it, commercially too, on one condition: credit. If you share a model or print whose area reaches south of 75°S — selling it, displaying it in public and publishing photos or files of it are all sharing — give this credit, word for word: Mercury south polar topography: Bertone et al. 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.19740142, licensed CC BY 4.0, modified. Put it where the people you share with will see it, as for star charts below; the download dialog shows it and the model's files include it. This condition comes from that licence, not from us, and we cannot waive it. A Mercury model entirely north of 75°S contains none of this material and needs no credit. Nothing in these terms limits what CC BY 4.0 itself lets you do with that topography; the conditions in this section apply to the model we generate, not to Bertone et al.'s data.

Star charts. An OrbitStudio Sky chart is made of three kinds of material, on different terms:

  • The stars come from the Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Edition (Hoffleit & Warren, 1991), as distributed by NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC). It is a catalogue of measurements. HEASARC's data policy says that its materials “are all available freely for your use”, and it asks for an acknowledgement only in a research publication to which HEASARC made a significant contribution; a print is not one, so the stars on it need no credit. The catalogue itself carries no licence of its own. We use only measured facts from it: each star's position and brightness. That is the basis on which we include them; we do not describe the catalogue as licensed, to us or to you.
  • The planets and the Moon are placed by our own calculation, from published formulas for their orbits. That is arithmetic, not a dataset anyone licenses.
  • The constellation figures — the lines joining the stars, when Show Constellations is switched on — are Alan MacRobert's, drawn for the constellation charts the IAU produced with Sky & Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg). The IAU releases them under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0), and our charts use them modified: every line is redrawn onto the star positions above. CC BY 4.0 lets anyone use, adapt and sell them, commercially too, on one condition: the credit below.

If you share a chart that shows the constellation figures, you must credit them. Selling a print that shows them, displaying it in public, and publishing photos or files of it are all sharing. Give this credit, word for word:

Constellation figures: IAU and Sky & Telescope, licensed CC BY 4.0, modified.

Put it where the people you share with will see it — in the listing, on a card or label that goes with the print, or beside the photo — and where a link cannot be clicked, add the address of the licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The IAU asks for its credit with the wording unaltered, and the credit must not suggest that the IAU or Sky & Telescope endorse you or your print. This condition comes from the IAU's licence, not from us, and we cannot waive it. A chart made with Show Constellations switched off contains none of this material and needs no credit.

Nothing in these terms limits what CC BY 4.0 itself lets you do with the constellation figures; the conditions in this section apply to the chart we generate, not to the IAU's figures. A place name you put on a print needs no credit, whether you typed it or picked it from the place search: the search finds places through OpenStreetMap, but one name on a print is far too little of its data for its licence to ask for one.

OrbitStudio Atlas. An Atlas map is built from three kinds of public data: the elevation of the land, the borders its outline and its pieces follow, and the coastline and lakes that decide where the land ends. Unlike NASA's, this data comes with terms of its own, so, as promised above, they are set out here, and the licence above covers Atlas models subject to them. Every Atlas download contains a file named CREDITS.txt that sets out, for that model, the credits below and the licence of every boundary layer it was built from.

Elevation and coastline from the Copernicus DEM. OrbitStudio Atlas takes the heights of every model, and where its land ends, from the Copernicus DEM, the digital elevation model of the European Union's Copernicus programme, in its 90-metre instance: the Copernicus WorldDEM™-90. The programme makes it available free of charge under its licence “COP-DEM-GLO-90-F”, which lets us adapt the data and pass it on, on conditions that bind everyone the model reaches. Every model built from it carries the following, word for word, in the credits file that comes with its download:

  • “produced using Copernicus WorldDEM™-90 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved”
  • The organisations in charge of the Copernicus programme by law or by delegation do not incur any liability for any use of the Copernicus WorldDEM™-90.
  • Neither Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, the European Union, ESA nor any other body in charge of the Copernicus programme or the delivery of its data endorses this model, OrbitStudio, or anyone who prints, shows or sells it.
  • Anyone who passes this model or a print of it on, or shows it to the public, is bound by these same Copernicus conditions and must pass them on with it.

The first two are the licence's own words: the notice it prescribes for data that has been adapted, and the sentence it requires in any notice that covers passing the data on. The other two put its remaining rules in plain words: nobody may suggest that the programme endorses them, and these conditions travel with the data. They come from the Copernicus licence, not from us, and we cannot waive them. They bind you too: whenever you sell a print of such a model, give one away, display it in public or publish photos of it, give the notice with it, keep the sentence on liability with it, and do not suggest that Airbus, the European Union, ESA or the Copernicus programme endorses you or your print.

The data itself remains DLR's and Airbus's, as the notice says: neither the Copernicus licence nor these terms pass on any ownership of it. Nothing in these terms limits what the Copernicus licence lets you do with the Copernicus DEM itself, which anyone can obtain from the programme.

Borders from geoBoundaries. The outline of an Atlas model and the borders its pieces are cut along come from geoBoundaries, which republishes the administrative boundaries of the world's countries from national and international sources, except where this section names Natural Earth or our own drawing. It has no single licence: every country, and every level within it — the country, its provinces, their municipalities — carries the licence of its own source. The app shows the licence of the layers a model uses as one line before you build it. CREDITS.txt names, for every layer the model uses, its licence, the web address of that licence where it has one, its source and its year, and it states how the boundaries were modified to make the model, together with the credit Administrative boundaries: geoBoundaries (www.geoboundaries.org).

Outlines made from a country's own provinces. Where geoBoundaries publishes no national outline for a country, or publishes it under a licence that does not allow prints to be sold, while it publishes that country's provinces or municipalities under one that does, the outline is made by merging all the units of that level into one shape and keeping its outer edge; its lakes come from the water body mask, as below. Such an outline is still geoBoundaries' data, under the licence of the level it was made from, and CREDITS.txt names that level and says the outline was merged from it.

Borders from Natural Earth. Where geoBoundaries has no national outline or provinces Atlas can offer for a country, they come from Natural Earth when it has them; Natural Earth is in the public domain and asks for no credit, and CREDITS.txt names it for that layer all the same, with the credit Administrative boundaries: Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain. In this version of these terms that is the national outline of Austria, Kosovo and Greenland, and the provinces of those three and of Gabon, El Salvador and Turkey. Municipalities never come from Natural Earth.

Continents. A continent other than Antarctica is cut into its countries as Natural Earth draws them, along the de facto borders it draws, so a territory it draws on its own, such as Western Sahara, Somaliland or Northern Cyprus, is a piece of its own. Its land is the land of the Copernicus DEM's water body mask within those countries, under the coastline terms below. Its outline is our own drawing, not a border anyone publishes. Where two continents' countries meet on land, the outline follows Natural Earth's border, such as Russia's with Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, or Natural Earth's own water at the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Elsewhere between Europe and Asia it follows a line we drew ourselves: along the watershed of the Ural Mountains, then the Ural river, and on through the Caspian Sea. Between Africa and Asia it follows another line of ours, along the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Suez. Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Egypt are cut along those lines, each part a piece named after its country. At sea the outline is ours as well, and so is the choice of which islands a continent takes in. Every such continent's CREDITS.txt says so: Continent outlines and the line between Europe and Asia and between Africa and Asia: drawn by OrbitStudio from the conventional atlas line.

Antarctica is the exception: it is one piece, its outline is its national outline from geoBoundaries, and its coast is ice, so its land is its national outline joined with Natural Earth's ice shelves, and its model is projected on a frame centred on the South Pole. Its CREDITS.txt says: Land of Antarctica: its national outline joined with the ice shelves of Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain; the Copernicus DEM's water body mask is not used.

Atlas offers only the countries, provinces and continents whose layers allow prints to be sold: layers in the public domain, and layers under a licence that asks for a credit. A layer under a share-alike licence, or under terms that have to be read before anything is sold, is not offered; the app shows a country or province that would need one as unavailable, and says why.

Many layers are under the Open Database License (ODbL). An Atlas model made from such a layer is a Produced Work under that licence — a work made from the database, not a copy of it — so it needs a notice naming the database and its licence, which CREDITS.txt gives, and it does not take on the licence itself. Because the boundaries were changed to make the model, the ODbL also asks that the method of those changes be offered to whoever receives the model. CREDITS.txt states that method, and it travels with the model like the credits.

Coastline, lakes and rivers. Where the land ends, and which lakes and rivers are cut out of it, comes from the water body mask the Copernicus DEM publishes with its heights, under the same licence and the same notice as above: lakes of 5 km² or more are water, and so is river water at least 1 km wide covering as much. Where the Copernicus DEM has no data, the coastline comes from Natural Earth, which is in the public domain and asks for no credit. CREDITS.txt gives one anyway: Coastline, lakes and rivers: the Copernicus DEM's water body mask, with Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain, where the DEM has no tile.

If you share an Atlas model, its credits go with it. Selling a print, giving one away, displaying it in public and publishing photos of it are all sharing. Every CREDITS.txt opens with a short block headed “Credit to share”: give the text of that block where the people you share with will see it — in the listing, on a card or label that goes with the print, or beside the photo — with the licence addresses it gives written out in full wherever a link cannot be clicked, and keep to the Copernicus conditions above. The rest of CREDITS.txt explains those credits and stays with the files. You may copy that text wherever you need to; the model's files themselves stay under the rule below that nobody may redistribute them.

Selling prints of an Atlas model is allowed on the commercial tier described below (Lifetime Commercial, or a Merchant plan while it runs), for every country, province and continent the app offers. The “Credit to share” block of the model's CREDITS.txt must go with every sale, in the listing or with the print, and the Copernicus conditions above bind you as a seller, as they bind us.

These conditions come from the data's licences, not from us, and we cannot waive them. Nothing in these terms limits what a boundary layer's own licence lets you do with that layer, which anyone can obtain from geoBoundaries; the conditions in this section apply to the model we build, not to the source data.

Everyone may, on any tier or without an account

  • print the models you generate, for yourself and as gifts — an Atlas print given away takes its credits with it, as set out above;
  • photograph and film your prints and share those images, including on social media and in maker communities — with the credit above for a star chart that shows constellation figures, and with the “Credit to share” block of its CREDITS.txt for an OrbitStudio Atlas model.

Selling prints requires a commercial tier. The right to sell applies only to the Merchant reward tier from our MakerWorld crowdfunding campaign (shown on your account as Lifetime Commercial) and to a Merchant plan while it runs (section 5A).

On that tier you may additionally:

  • sell physical prints of your models — on Etsy, at markets, in a shop, as commissions, or anywhere else;
  • use photos and video of those prints commercially, including in your own marketing.

Your license number. A Lifetime Commercial account has a license number and a certificate, which you find under My Models. A running Merchant plan carries the same license number and certificate: while the plan runs the number checks as valid, and when it ends the number no longer checks as valid until you buy Merchant again. A revoked number stays revoked. Anyone can check a number at orbitstudio3d.com/license. If you sell prints, you must give us your license number when we ask for it, so we can confirm that a shop selling prints made with OrbitStudio holds this license. The shop name and links you add to your certificate are shown to anyone who checks your number. We may revoke a license number if the commercial tier is withdrawn from your account or if you break these terms; a revoked number no longer checks as valid.

Selling also makes you the producer of a physical product. You must meet the product safety rules that apply in your market, warn your buyers about small parts, and — if you offer the item for children — meet toy safety requirements. See section 13.

On every other tier — Starter Pass, Premium Pass, Lifetime Creator and a Plus plan — and on a free account or without an account, models are for personal, non-commercial use. That includes the free STL of a star chart. You can upgrade at any time; the commercial rights then apply to prints you sell from that point onwards, and when a Merchant plan ends they stop applying to any sale from that day, stock included (section 5A).

Nobody may, on any tier

  • resell, redistribute, share, publish or give away the digital files (STL, 3MF or files derived from them) as files, whether free or paid;
  • upload the generated files to model-sharing platforms, file repositories or torrent sites;
  • use the service or its output to build, train or populate a competing generator, model library or dataset;
  • claim that you created the underlying elevation data, boundary data, star catalogue or constellation figures, or present OrbitStudio's software as your own.

What the files say. Every model file you download carries the text “Made with OrbitStudio” and a random model code, which our records link to the account that made the model (a star chart’s files carry the code once the chart is saved to your library). It is there so that we can trace copies that are shared or resold against this section. Removing it does not change what you may do with a file. Our privacy policy describes the code.

For Moon, Mars, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys models, and Mercury models entirely north of 75°S, attribution is appreciated but not required — the data sources are credited on our home page, and nothing in their terms obliges you to repeat it. For star charts it is required wherever the constellation figures are shared, for a Mercury model reaching south of 75°S wherever it is shared, for a Jupiter model wherever it is shared, and for OrbitStudio Atlas models wherever a model or a print of it is shared, as set out above. Your licence is non-exclusive: a planet, like the sky, is a shared object, and other users may generate a model of the same region, a map of the same country or a chart of the same place and moment. You acquire no exclusivity over any region of any world or any view of the sky, and no rights in the OrbitStudio software, brand or website.

09 Text and content you submit

OrbitStudio lets you add your own text to a model — on its frame or cover, or on the plate of a star chart. You are solely responsible for what you submit, and you confirm that it:

  • does not infringe anyone's trademark, copyright, name or portrait rights;
  • is not unlawful, threatening, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory or obscene;
  • does not impersonate anyone or falsely suggest an endorsement, including by NASA, any space agency or the IAU.

We do not pre-screen submitted text, but we may refuse, remove or reverse any generation and suspend an account where we reasonably believe this clause has been breached. To the extent permitted by law, you will compensate us for third-party claims, damages and reasonable costs arising from text or content you submitted.

Shared pages. You may publish a public page for a model you made (Share, in the app or in My Models). The page, its picture and the name you choose to show are content you submit under this section, and you choose to publish them: anyone with the link can see them, and search engines may index them. Sharing a page never shares the model's files, and section 08 still governs them. You can stop sharing at any time, and we may take a page down where we reasonably believe it breaches these terms.

10 Acceptable use

You agree not to:

  • circumvent or attempt to circumvent credit limits, rate limits, paywalls or authentication;
  • access the service by automated means (scraping, bots, bulk generation) except as we expressly permit;
  • reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to extract the source code or generation logic, except to the extent this is expressly permitted by mandatory law;
  • probe, scan or test the security of the service without our prior written permission, or disrupt its operation;
  • resell or provide the service to third parties as if it were your own.

Found a security issue? Please report it to us at the contact address above before disclosing it. We welcome responsible reports and will not pursue researchers who act in good faith.

11 Source data and accuracy

Moon models are derived from publicly available datasets produced by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, including LOLA elevation data and WAC imagery. Mars models are derived from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission and its MOLA elevation data. Mercury models are derived from NASA's MESSENGER mission: the USGS global elevation model made from its images, NASA Goddard's north polar topography from its laser altimeter, and south of 75°S the south polar topography of Bertone et al. described in section 8. Venus models are derived from NASA's Magellan mission: its radar altimetry, gridded at about 4.6 km and resolving relief of about 10 to 30 km, and its radar images on screen. Venus's surface has never been photographed from orbit; what the map and the globe show is radar brightness, in gray or in a simulated color. Pluto models are derived from stereo images taken by NASA's New Horizons during its 2015 flyby, gridded at 300 m and resolving relief of about 1 km; the map shows the mission's global colour map in enhanced colour, or its black-and-white image mosaic. Some areas were seen only from far away or in haze light and print softer. Charon models are derived from the same flyby's stereo images, gridded at 300 m, and the map and the globe show the mission's global image mosaic of Charon. Some areas, including the north polar region, were seen only from far away or at a grazing angle and print softer. Ceres models are derived from NASA's Dawn mission: the shape model JPL's Dawn Gravity Science Team made from tens of thousands of its camera images, gridded at about 100 m. On screen, the map shows a global map JPL made from Dawn's images with color added, and our own shaded relief of the shape model; neither is a photograph, and neither is printed. Around the south pole Dawn never saw the ground in sunlight, and models cannot be made there. Vesta models are derived from the same mission: the shape model the same team made from about 16,500 of its camera images, gridded at about 50 m, with the team's coarser global model (about 370 m) in the far north, which Dawn saw only in winter and where models print softer. On screen, the map shows Vesta in true colour from the colour mosaics the German Aerospace Center (DLR) made from Dawn's camera images and archived in NASA's Planetary Data System (Roatsch et al. 2015, DAWN-A-FC2-5-MOSAIC-V1.0), shaded with our own relief, and our own shaded relief of the shape model; none of it is a photograph. The shading is never printed; the true colour without it is what a Vesta model printed in more than one colour takes its colours from. Jupiter has no solid surface. Jupiter models are flat; their colours come from Hubble's map of 11 December 2025 (section 8), which covers about 60 degrees either side of the equator, and the clouds have moved since. The Great Red Spot and the belts change shape, colour and place from month to month. Mimas and Enceladus models are derived from shape models made from NASA's Cassini images, gridded at about 560 m (Mimas) and 180 m (Enceladus); Mimas's data is soft below about 100 km, and Enceladus's relief is so low that its models start at three times true height. On screen, their maps show the Cassini imaging team's global image maps of each moon from NASA's Planetary Data System, Paul Schenk's (Lunar and Planetary Institute) enhanced-colour maps of 2014, which combine infrared, green and ultraviolet images and are not what an eye would see, and our own shaded relief of the shape models; none of it is a photograph. Mimas's image maps are patchworks and can sit a few kilometres off its shape model in places. Tethys models are derived from the Planetary Science Institute's shape model of Tethys, made from NASA's Cassini images with a resolution of about 1.5 km and gridded at about 770 m; craters smaller than about 30 km print softly, and the regions nearest the poles show faint east-west streaks from the model. On screen, Tethys's map shows the Cassini imaging team's global image map of Tethys from NASA's Planetary Data System (volume COISS_3004) and our own shaded relief of the shape model; none of it is a photograph, and the image map can sit several kilometres off the shape model.

Surface colours (section 8) are printed only when you choose more than one. They come from the colour images named there — the same images the map shows (for Pluto, its colour map), without the shading the map adds and without anything the map fills in where the images have no data, with two exceptions: on Vesta, gaps up to about 10 km across take the colour of the ground around them, and on Venus, where neither radar mosaic has an image, the colour is the USGS's simulated-colour mosaic, which the USGS interpolated across those gaps, as the map shows it — and they are reduced to as many tones as you choose, each printed in the filament you pick. Mercury is printed in shades of grey from MESSENGER's black-and-white basemap, as the map shows it; it was made from images taken with the Sun high, so it shows the brightness of the ground more than its shadows, and near the poles, where the Sun is always low, some shadows print black and some bright slopes white. The map is an earlier edition of the same basemap, so near the poles the print can differ from it. The Moon is printed in shades of grey from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's black-and-white mosaic, as the map shows it, shadows included: the mosaic was taken with the Sun low, so crater walls carry their shadows in the print as well as in the relief, and near the poles, where most of the ground is in shadow, a model prints mostly dark. Mars is shown in near-natural colour: Viking had no green filter, so its colours were computed from the red and violet images and laid over a black-and-white mosaic, and the colour map is coarser than the terrain and can sit a few kilometres off it, which is why Mars colours need a selection at least 455 km across. Pluto is shown in enhanced colour: New Horizons' colour camera has no green filter, so its near-infrared, red and blue images are shown as red, green and blue, each stretched for contrast. Charon is printed in shades of grey from New Horizons' black-and-white mosaic, as the map shows it, and Enceladus in shades of grey from Cassini's black-and-white global map, as the map shows it, shadows included; Enceladus is the brightest ice in the Solar System, but that map is stretched to mid-greys, so its prints come out grey, and the map sits up to about 2 km off the shape model, which is why Enceladus colours need a selection at least 117 km across. Venus is printed in the map's simulated colour: its tones are bands of radar brightness, which is roughness and slope as a radar sees them, drawn in a scale of yellows, oranges and browns that the USGS chose to simulate light under Venus's clouds; it is not the colour of Venus's surface, which no camera has seen from orbit. Vesta is shown in true colour composed from Dawn's red, green and blue filters; printed, it looks flatter than on the map, where our own relief shading is added. Real surface colour is mostly a matter of brightness — dark plains, bright highlands and young craters — so on most worlds the tones are shades of grey or brown. None of it is a photograph. Where no colour images exist, including patches around Mercury's south pole, the parts of Venus Magellan never measured, the dark south of Pluto and Charon, Vesta's far north and the larger shadowed floors of some of its craters, a model cannot be printed in more than one colour; smaller gaps in Vesta's colour, up to about 10 km across, are given the colour of the ground around them.

Star charts place the stars from the Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised Edition, and the planets and the Moon by our own calculation; the constellation figures come from the IAU and Sky & Telescope (section 8).

OrbitStudio Atlas models take their heights, coastline, lakes and rivers from the Copernicus DEM (and their coastline from Natural Earth where the DEM has no data) and their borders from geoBoundaries (section 8).

OrbitStudio is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NASA or any other space agency, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Space Science Institute, the Planetary Science Institute, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the IAU, Sky & Telescope, the OpenStreetMap Foundation, the European Union or its Copernicus programme, ESA, Airbus Defence and Space, geoBoundaries or Natural Earth. References to them describe the origin of the source data only.

  • The source data has a finite resolution and its own margin of error. Detail smaller than the dataset's resolution cannot be represented.
  • Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Pluto, Charon, Ceres, Vesta, Mimas, Enceladus and Tethys models apply vertical exaggeration and other artistic and manufacturing adjustments by design, so that terrain is visible at print scale. Heights in a model are not to true scale.
  • The borders in an OrbitStudio Atlas model follow geoBoundaries as published, or Natural Earth where its CREDITS.txt names Natural Earth, for the layer, source and year named in its CREDITS.txt; a national outline merged from a country's own provinces or municipalities follows theirs. A continent's countries follow the de facto borders Natural Earth draws. The outline of a continent other than Antarctica, and the line between Europe and Asia and between Africa and Asia, is our own drawing along the conventional atlas line (following Natural Earth's borders and water where section 08 says so), not a border, and so is the choice of which islands a continent takes in. Where a border is disputed, the model shows the choice that source made; it is not a statement by us about where any border lies or should lie.
  • An OrbitStudio Atlas model is smoothed at print scale. Its elevation is resampled and blurred to the width of a printed line, and its height is scaled so that its highest point sits at the relief height you choose — usually exaggerated, sometimes flattened — unless you choose true scale. Its borders are simplified, cleared of parts too small or too thin to print and set back by half the gap between pieces, and far islands are left out unless you keep them, so a small island, a narrow strip of land or the fine detail of a border can disappear. A continent is smoothed the same way at its own, much smaller scale, so its coasts and borders lose more of their detail than a country's do; it takes in the islands its outline holds, and there is no choice to keep others. The Copernicus DEM measures the surface as seen from space, forests and buildings included, not the bare ground.
  • A star chart shows the sky as calculated for the place, date, time and time zone you enter. Star positions are rounded, and the positions of the planets and the Moon come from an approximate calculation: close enough for a printed chart, not exact, and the Moon can be a few degrees out. The time zone is guessed from the coordinates, so check it before you print.
  • Models are decorative and educational representations. They are not survey-grade products and must not be used for scientific measurement, navigation, mission planning, engineering, or any safety-critical purpose.

We do not warrant that the source data or any generated model is accurate, complete or current.

12 Printing is at your own risk

We do not guarantee that any generated model will print successfully. 3D printing outcomes depend on your printer, slicer, profile, materials, calibration and environment — none of which we control or can inspect.

You are responsible for:

  • inspecting each model in your own slicer before printing, including geometry, wall thickness, clearances, supports and fit;
  • choosing appropriate settings and materials for your machine;
  • operating your printer safely and in line with its manufacturer's instructions, and never leaving it unattended contrary to those instructions.

We are not responsible for failed prints, wasted filament or resin, print time, machine wear, nozzle or build-plate damage, or any other cost arising from printing a generated model.

13 Safety and product responsibility

Choking hazard — small parts. A generated puzzle can consist of dozens of small interlocking pieces. Printed models are not toys and are not suitable for children under 3 years of age. Keep printed pieces away from small children and pets, and supervise older children.

OrbitStudio models are decorative objects intended for adults and older children. We do not design, test or certify them as toys, and they carry no CE marking as toys. If you intend a print for a child, it is your responsibility to judge whether it is safe for that child's age.

Who is responsible for the printed object

We supply digital files. The person who prints a file manufactures the physical object and is responsible for it — for the material chosen, the print quality, sharp edges and loose parts, and for how the object is then used or passed on to others.

If you sell printed models under a commercial tier (section 8), you place a physical product on the market in your own name. You are responsible for meeting the product safety rules that apply to you, including general product safety legislation and — if you offer the item for children — toy safety requirements such as CE marking and small-parts testing. You must give your buyers the appropriate warnings, and to the extent permitted by law you will compensate us for claims arising from products you placed on the market.

Nothing in this section limits liability that cannot be limited by law — see section 15.

14 Availability

We aim to keep OrbitStudio available and working well, but we provide it on an "as is" and "as available" basis and do not offer a guaranteed uptime or service level. The service may be unavailable during maintenance, updates, or because of failures at our hosting, storage or network providers, or other causes outside our reasonable control.

Nothing in this section limits the statutory rights of consumers under section 15.

15 Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability where the law does not allow it. This includes liability for intent (opzet) or deliberate recklessness (bewuste roekeloosheid), for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and any mandatory rights you have as a consumer — including your statutory right to a product that conforms to the contract. Those rights are not affected by anything below.

Subject to the above, and to the fullest extent permitted by law:

  • we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including failed prints, wasted filament or resin, print time, damage to or wear of printers and equipment, loss of profit, loss of expected savings, business interruption, loss of goodwill, or loss or corruption of data;
  • our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the service in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in that period, or (b) EUR 50;
  • we are not liable for loss caused by your failure to inspect a model before printing, by your printer, slicer, profile or materials, or by your breach of these terms.

You must notify us of any claim within a reasonable period after you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the loss.

16 Suspension and termination

You may stop using OrbitStudio and ask us to delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially breach these terms — in particular sections 4, 8, 9 or 10 — or where we are required to do so by law.

Where the breach is capable of being remedied and the circumstances allow, we will warn you first and give you a reasonable opportunity to put it right. If we terminate your account for a serious breach, unused credits are forfeited. If we terminate for any other reason, we will refund unused credits on a pro-rata basis.

If you hold a plan (section 5A) and we terminate your account, the plan ends with it. For a serious breach we do not refund any part of the plan. If we terminate for any other reason, we refund the unused whole months of the period you have paid for.

17 Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by Dutch law. Disputes will be submitted to the competent court in the Netherlands.

If you are a consumer, this choice does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence, and you may also bring proceedings in the courts of that country.

We would much rather solve things directly — please contact us first and we will do our best to sort it out.

18 General

  • If any provision of these terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the rest remains in force and the invalid provision is replaced by a valid one that comes closest to its intent.
  • Not enforcing a right immediately does not mean we waive it.
  • You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent. We may transfer ours if OrbitStudio is transferred to another operator, provided your rights are not reduced.
  • These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us regarding the service.

19 Contact

Questions about these terms? Email [email protected] and we will get back to you.